If at first you don't succeed...

I took Alana ice-skating for the first time today. My friend Bonny, experienced at helping new ice skaters, suggested we get a chair for her to push around. This went pretty well, and we made a couple of circuits around the rink. At one point, Alana fell down pretty hard. She was wearing a helmet, and we'd brought knee and elbow pads, so she was unbruised. Even so, she smacked down hard and didn't get up right away.

Bonny asked, "Are you OK?"
"Yeah," Alana said, climbing slowly to her feet. In a cheerful voice she added,
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

"Did you *hear* that?" Bonny said, somewhat incredulous.

I was almost too busy pumping my fists in the air to respond. YES! She *has* heard some of what we say :) !

Learning new skills...

Alexander is quickly learning new skills. He's waving and saying "Bye Bye", signing when he's all done, pointing at all the things he wants, and generally making himself much more understood.

He's also finally learning that getting a clean diaper is a good thing! When I lay out the changing pad and pat it to show him I want to change his diaper, he'll come over and lay down for me. Of course, he hasn't quite figured out how to lay down so his bum is facing the right direction yet though so I usually have to turn him around.

Alexander's first steps!

Alexander is officially taking steps! He just took three steps for Keith this morning!!!

Alexander's first tooth!

Yay! Alexander has finally cut his first tooth! It's not like he eats baby food anymore anyways so we thought it was about time. *g*

Imagination

Alana, with her Nana:
A: "Allegia gave me a headache."
Nana: "That can't happen."
A: "It did. A pipe ran from her head to mine, and she gave it to me."
N: (confused) "Who is this?"
A: "Allegia. She's my imaginary friend. Allegia hit me in the chin and I bled. I told her that wasn't nice, so she apologized and now we're friends again."

Good Thinking!

Alana, randomly at lunch: "I'm really glad we picked a house with TV and drums!"

Adults Just Aren't That Smart

So Alana (3 1/2) had a cold, and my sister Kim was feeding her some soup.

Kim: "You need to drink the soup to keep yourself from getting sicker."
Alana: "No, it's the anti-bacterial stuff that keeps you from getting sicker."
K: "Excuse me?"
A: "It's the anti-bacterial stuff that helps you get better."
K: "I thought that's what you said."

Monkey see, Monkey do

All kids imitate their parents. It can be either charming or horribly embarrassing, and sometimes both.

Since she was teeny-weeny, she has always loved her "computer", a Speak'n'Spell we got for free at a yard sale. These days, she'll wander around the house making "business calls", stopping to type furiously on her computer, moving a gel wrist rest around like a mouse, and then picking up where she left off on the call.

With complete seriousness, she'll tell us "Can you try to be quiet, please? I'm on the telephone!" Since she generally does a pretty good job at being quiet when we're on the phone, it's hard not to comply .

Ouch!

When we run our errands on the weekends, I usually drive and Keith will bring his laptop so that he can do work in the car. A couple of weekends ago, Keith didn't bring his laptop. He turned around and told Alana that he didn't have it so they could chat. Alana said, "Oh Daddy, I'm so glad that you didn't bring your computer today so that you're not ignoring me!"

Ouch!

Chill

Alana has an imaginary friend named Allegia (no, we don't know where the name came from either). One day, I was taking the kids out on some errands and Alana told me that Allegia was sitting in the passenger seat next to me. I asked, "Oh, really?" and she answered, "Yeah, because she just wanted to chill out with you."